Imperfect

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”----Mahatma Gandhi
This is a really powerful statement. This is a really thought provoking statement. This is a really embarrassing statement. And while it seems to be a scathing remark about our ability to be Christlike, I see it a little differently. I see it as a rebuke about how we, as Christians, have portrayed ourselves to the rest of the world.
We will never be Christlike enough to compare to Jesus. He is perfect, and we are definitely not (at least I know I am not!). And we will never be perfect. We are flawed and frail. We are weak and prone to failure. We are unable to live up to the standards of perfection that God has set for us.
In Revelation 4&5, John goes into the throne room of God. He starts describing things for the reader. He describes the throne, the area around the throne, the other creatures and beings in the room, but He doesn't really describe the most important aspect of the throne room.... God!! He just calls Him "the One sitting on the throne." Why would John do this? Isn't "the One sitting on the throne" the most important thing to describe? John doesn't describe Him because He is indescribable. In order to describe something, you have to make a comparison. You have to find something that it is like, and use that thing to describe what you are seeing. God is unlike anything or anyone else. He is beyond compare. And because He cannot be compared with anything, He cannot be accurately described.
So, when we, as frail and flawed people, compare ourselves to the glory of God, it should make sense that we will come up short. We will never be like Him. Not even close.
So then, why would Gandhi say this? Why would he emphasize our imperfection? I think it is because we have carried ourselves in the world like we are perfect. We have given everyone the impression that because we follow Christ, we have no flaws and that we don't make mistakes. We try to explain away or excuse past failures of ourselves or other Christians as though we have no faults. We have brought the world into a belief that we think we are perfect, or better than everyone else because we are Christians. We have forgotten who we are being compared to.
We like to compare ourselves to someone whose life is falling apart, and say "I'm not perfect, but at least I'm better than that guy!" Or, we compare ourselves to other Christians that we think we are more spiritual than. And as we make these comparisons, we come out thinking that we are pretty special. We think we have got it all together. We think that because we are better than someone else in our own eyes, that makes us perfect. We are so wrong.
We need to remember that we are to compare ourselves to one person, and one person only. And that one person is Jesus Christ. And when I compare myself to Him, I always come up seriously short. When I compare myself to His power, and His perfection, I realize just how weak and imperfect I am.
But here is the good news: Even though God's standard is perfection, He knows I can't get there. And since I can't do it, He came and did it for me. I could not be my own perfect sacrifice, so Jesus became that sacrifice on my behalf!! That sacrifice means that when God looks at my life, He sees perfection... But its not my perfection He sees... He sees the perfection of Christ. I don't own or possess that perfection, it is a covering that Christ has given to me. He covers my imperfection with His perfection!!
I will never be perfect. I will never compare to Christ. I will never live up to His standards. If I could, I wouldn't need Him. I live and breathe knowing that Jesus Christ has become my covering.
I need to carry myself in the world with the knowledge of my imperfection, and the wonder of knowing that the love and grace of God has covered me. Then maybe the world will see that I am real. I am not letting people think I am like Christ or that I could ever be like Christ. Then maybe the world will see that I'm just a messed up, imperfect person, doing my best to serve a perfect God.